Thursday, September 18, 2008

Yesterday officially marked my eight month anniversary and guess what else? I went out and bought a new Mac computer so hopefully I can upgrade the pictures and actually add videos in order to give myself (and anyone who reads this) a better way to see the progress I've made. About the hair...it has grown some (not much) but enough to see a difference. Here's some pictures...

I've been covering my head at night with my homemade satin hair cover. It matches the homemade pillow.

This really helps the hair to stay smooth and soft at the roots. As far as the lock itself, it's hard to keep it looking silky and smooth unless you have a really fine texture of hair to begin with. But then again, maybe I'm wrong because I saw a White dude the other day with locs and his hair looked thicker and shaggier than mine. I had to do a double take.

As my hair locks it looks dry, even though it's not. In reality, it's fluffy and kind of wooly I guess. But imagine trying to make a sheep look like it has shiny wool...not going to happen. So I don't expect to make my dreads look silky smooth. Right now I am at that point where the hair thickens a little and is fat at the ends, but I heard that this is a phase and with maturity my hair will become more cylindrical. I think it's getting there. I have been washing my hair with some shampoo that I bought from Whole Foods last week. It's called Hydrating Shea Butter Shampoo and Conditioner and it's made by a company called Desert Essence. I love how it makes my hair feel (and I'd better at $10 a bottle!) This stuff hydrates and anything that hydrates is good for me, because my hair absorbs water like a sponge. As we all know it's really important for Black people (especially ones with really thick and kinky hair like mine) to keep their hair moisturized and hydrated. FYI: Dry hair is not conducive to growth, and it also increases breakage and split ends. This stuff gave my hair and scalp the same feeling that I get when I pretreat it with the natural oils that I mix up. The ingredients say that it contains no alcohol and that everything is natural. It also contains Ginkgo and Rosemary (in the shampoo) and Meadowfoam and Wheat Protein (in the conditioner). Don't really know what the latter two are, but I'll look them up.

I have also been massaging my head with this oil that I got from Whole Foods. It's called Almond Glow. It's supposed to be used like a skin lotion, but I like all of the natural oils in the ingredients and it's lavender scented which is one of my favorite scents. It contains peanut oil, olive oil, lanolin oil and vitamin E. And it's light, which means no residue...which I will get into later. It's also paraben free and even though I don't know what that means it sounds like a good thing too, lol. So there tis! My new easy to take care of hair regimen. I rub the oil through my locs and go.

Now that my hair has locked up I don't have to re-twist half as much as I used to. And it also has some weight to it which is great because it lays down now. I was wearing it in an up-do a lot so that I could pleasantly surprise myself when I let my hair down and it had a little more length to it. Of course I'd have to pull it down with my fingers, because when I took it out of the up-do, it would just stay up in the air gathered on top of my head. But one day I let my hair loose and it actually dropped down when I released the clasp. You should have saw my face, lol. :-0 Yeah, it's a weird concept, but everyday is a nice little surprise. For the most part, though, I've been wearing it down a lot more now. I am loving this phase of my hair and every phase thus far. My only regret is not doing it sooner.